Clik here to view.
This New Year’s Eve, raise a plastic champagne glass to Bully and the glory...
On Bully’s second full-length record, Losing (released late last year on Sub Pop), vocalist and guitarist Alicia Bognanno doesn’t fuck around. As suggested by its blunt cover art—a stark...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chicago rapper Vic Spencer caps off a prolific year with the compact, fierce...
The world may never catch up to Chicago rapper Vic Spencer—not that he seems to mind. He’s been dependably prolific and undeniably fierce on the mike throughout 2018, starting with January’s Spencer...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets smartly merge their disparate musical styles...
Though at first glance the matching suits and Mexican wrestling masks favored by Los Straitjackets might point to the contrary, the Nashville instrumental rock group are anything but a one-note...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A renewed focus pays off big for the seasoned jazz musicians of DVK Trio
Drummer Hamid Drake, bassist Kent Kessler, and saxophonist and clarinetist Ken Vandermark have been playing together as DKV Trio since 1994. During their early years, their forceful playing—which was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lando Chill makes laid back rap that's quick on its feet
"[I'm] just the Burt Bacharach of the shit," Lando Chill muses on "Clypped," off his latest album, Black Ego. Like most lyrics from the Tucson rapper, the boast first comes across as a woozy offhand...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Indie rockers Screaming Females exorcise the demons of 2018 with a two-night...
This high-and-tight New Jersey trio, often credited with single-handedly defending the honor of heavy indie rock ’n’ roll since they emerged in 2005, hone their attack through near-constant gigging....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Noname evolves her unique blend of neo-soul, hip hop, and poetry on her...
Capping off a year in which she self-released her critically acclaimed sophomore LP, Room 25, Chicago rapper and poet Noname is set to close out 2018 with three consecutive hometown performances. Born...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chicago hip-hop legends celebrate the debut album of their collaborative...
Over the past year or so I’ve noticed a handful of Chicago hip-hop veterans gravitating back to releasing music on physical media after long stints of focusing largely on digital platforms (whether...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inspector Owl celebrates the end of 15 years of making indie rock with a...
Perhaps when the retro gaze of pop-music culture shifts to aughties indie rock, some future archivists will give Inspector Owl a little more attention than they’ve received in their time. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Blackened crust band Feral Light shift from war stories toward abstract...
Feral Light began life as an aggressive crusty blackened hardcore act with harrowing stories to tell of war and cruelty—on thire 2015 self-titled demo, the Minneapolis-based band threw down a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ryley Walker covers a lost Dave Matthews Band record with unexpected beauty...
A handful of years ago it became socially acceptable for punks and freaks—the types of people who'd spent their entire lives raging against hippies and wooks—to get into the Grateful Dead. I'm guilty...
View ArticleClik here to view.
DJ Seinfeld has more heart than laughs
A few years ago Swedish producer Armand Jakobsson coped with a painful breakup by binge-watching Seinfeld and crafting glacially paced, beautiful house tracks. He’d previously recorded music under...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New York indie rock band Charly Bliss keeps the pop perfection flowing with...
I like Charly Bliss way more than I should. The NYC foursome—really a pop act disguised as a punk band—ticks countless boxes of things that immediately annoy me or make me roll my eyes: goofy, quirky...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Luke Winslow-King traded New Orleans for Michigan, but his music retains some...
The influence of gospel music on singer-songwriter Luke Winslow-King is obvious, even when he’s playing an up-tempo song with a title such as "Swing That Thing." Though King doesn’t approach it in a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Meshell Ndegeocello dissects and rebuilds 80s and 90s classics on Ventroliquism
Can someone please give Meshell Ndegeocello a Grammy already? The 10-time nominee, also known as Meshell Suhalia Bashir-Shakur, has forged a distinctive and idiosyncratic past since her 1993 debut...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Outlaw country duo Brothers Osborne love weed, whisky, and Willie Nelson
Outlaw country first pulled out of the truck stop almost half a century ago now, but you wouldn't know the genre was middle-aged (and often paunchy) from listening to the Osborne Brothers. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
One of the longest-running freely improvising ensembles on earth plays this...
For improvisers, familiarity is a double-edged sword; if musicians get too comfortable with each other, inspiration can turn into habit. But there’s nothing quite so thrilling as the near-telepathic...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chicago power-pop band Beach Bunny show why they're one of the best in town...
If you spent any time at Chicago indie shows last year, chances are you became familiar with the band Beach Bunny, even if you never actually saw them play. The group’s name appeared on so many of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gabby's World finds indie-rock grace in small details on Beast on Beast
Indie singer-songwriter Gabrielle Smith broke out in 2015 under the name Eskimeaux. Since then, she’s changed the name of her project a couple times and last year she made her debut as the front woman...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Madison garage punks the Hussy can heat up the coldest winter nights
Here in the midwestern tundra, January can be a sleepy time for shows by touring bands, but no matter where or when Madison garage punks the Hussy play a gig, they heat things up—or even set them on...
View Article